Award Winner Updates

Zunar, winner of our Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award in 2011, is thriving after a long period of adversity as perhaps the biggest year in his career unfolds.

Zunar speaks at Muzium Negeri Pulau Pinang 05/05/19

A little less than two year ago, Zunar found it impossible to mount public events in his home country of Malaysia and in particular the city of Penang. Exhibitions would either be cancelled outright due to threats or would be interrupted by vandals, invariable leading to yet another incident of arrest or criminal charges for the cartoonist rather than the pro-government goons making his life a misery.

Now a major career retrospective – Art of Freedom – is set to open to the public later this month at the Muzium Negeri Pulau Pinang, the state museum in Penang. Such a thing would have been impossible under the previous regime. The videos below show the scale and beautiful presentation of the exhibit. The launch event last weekend was attended by the leader of the parliamentary opposition in Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim.

“I am nearly choking as I say this because I feel sentimental whenever I see Zunar’s artworks. It reminds me of the suffering we both went through together. And these artworks show the tangible suffering Zunar underwent. His works show how important cartoonists are to the country’s development”

The exhibition comes at the same time as Zunar’s memoir, Fight Through Cartoons, which will be available from Saturday. The book covers all the sorry details of the former prime minister Najib Razak and his government’s persecution of the cartoonist, up to an including multiple charges of sedition over Tweets about the afore-mentioned Ibrahim. CRNI’s Executive Director is quoted on the cover blurb:

“Zunar has given us something that is quite rare in the world of human rights and political cartooning. He opens the door into the anatomy of how a tyrant and demagogue uses the tools and institutions of state power to stop the critics that would point the world’s attention to their lawlessness…”

Dr. Robert Russell, Exec. Director, CRNI

Zunar laboured under a travel ban for a substantial period and has been making up for it since his change in fortune following the election of May last year. Most recently he was with Cartooning For Peace’s delegation to the African Union, Addis Ababa for the week of events preceding World Press Freedom Day.

Following cartoonist Musa Kart’s imprisonment last week, a host of international freedom of expression organizations have endorsed CRNI’s call upon the authorities in Turkey to release him.

Our statement reads:

CRNI is greatly saddened to report that the internationally acclaimed cartoonist Musa Kart is again a prisoner this World Press Freedom Day.

In November 2016 Musa Kart was one of a number of staff from the Cumhuriyet newspaper arrested without charge. He and his colleagues’ subsequent months in Silivri prison would be described as unlawful by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, “being in contravention of articles 10, 11 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of articles 14, 15 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”.

In April 2017 he was formally indicted with “helping an armed terrorist organization while not being a member” and “abusing trust”, prosecutors stipulating a maximum sentence of twenty-nine years. His trial began in July 2017. His funny, excoriating opening statement is worth reading in full.

After twelve months of court proceedings (arduous litigation being a well-worn censorious tactic) Kart was eventually found guilty and sentenced to three years and nine months. The appeals lodged on behalf of all those who received shorter sentences during the Cumhuriyet trials failed in February this year. Kart was informed he would be required to go to prison for one year and sixteen days.

On April 25th he and five colleagues – board members Önder Çelik and M.Kemal Güngör, news director Hakan Kara, columnist Güray Öz and financial officer Emre İper – decided to hand themselves in at Kandıra prison, a typically dignified and brave gesture.

Musa’s ultimate incarceration represents the culmination of fifteen years of persecution by then prime minister, now President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who twice tried and twice failed to use court action to silence the cartoonist in 2005 and 2014. As those who have followed recent history in Turkey will be aware, the attempted coup of July 2016 and the subsequent state of emergency provided Erdoğan the pretext required to round up many of his perceived enemies in academia, local government, the military and press & media. His victory in the April 2017 referendum, granting the president greater powers, and subsequent re-election in 2018 have only entrenched his position. In survey after survey Turkey remains the world’s number one jailer of journalists.

Kart is a past winner of CRNI’s Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award, was given the Cartooning For Peace Swiss Foundation’s Prix International du Dessin de Presse last year and is currently the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Maison du Dessin de Presse, Morges. He formally retired from cartooning in December 2017.

The undersigned organizations join CRNI in calling for the immediate release of Musa Kart and his five courageous colleagues and the dismissal of all charges against the criminalised former staff of Cumhuriyet. This World Press Freedom Day we express our solidarity with all those suffering in the protracted and unprecedented crackdown on freedom of expression in Turkey, and call for its end.

Adil Soz – International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech

Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC)

ARTICLE 19

Association of European Journalists

Articolo 21

Bytes for All (B4A)

Center for Media Studies & Peace Building (CEMESP)

Child Rights International Network (CRIN)

Civic Spaces Studies Association – Turkey

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

European Centre for Press and Media Freedom

European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)

Free Media Movement

Global Editors Network (GEN)

Independent Journalism Center (IJC)

Index on Censorship

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)

International Press Institute (IPI)

Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance

Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)

Media Watch

PEN International

PEN America

PEN Canada

Danish PEN

German PEN

Norwegian PEN

Swedish PEN

Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa

Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA)

South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM)

South East Europe Media Organisation

Vigilance for Democracy and the Civic State

World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers

#FreeMusaKart • #FreeTurkeyMedia • #WPFD2019

We are particularly grateful to IFEX and its members for support in this effort. Please take a look at everything they are doing to draw attention to the threats facing media workers of every kind on #WPFD2019

CRNI’s current Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award laureate Pedro X Molina has paid tribute to past winner Musa Kart, currently a prisoner in Turkey. Together with our friends at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fundwe present this new comic strip in English and Spanish ahead of World Press Freedom Day.

The history of Musa Kart by PX Molina.La historia de Musa Kart por PX Molina.

Since the news broke a week ago cartoonists everywhere have begun posting their own tributes, expressions of solidarity and outrage using the hashtag #FreeMusaKart

CRNI is an anti-censorship organization and endorses the freedom of expression of cartoonists everywhere. It is heartening to see efforts made to keep Musa’s story at the forefront of the news agenda and cartoons will certainly help; they will go even further if they can be used by campaigners in Turkey, as in the past.

We’ll have more to say about Musa, alongside many other freedom of expression NGOs, later on #WPFD2019

Yesterday columnist Yılmaz Özdil, friend of the recently imprisoned cartoonist Musa Kart, wrote an appreciation and placed Kart’s struggle within the context of the long and difficult history of cartoonists and satirists in Turkey. With his permission we present a translation; the original version can be read at Sözcü.com

The first Turkish humor magazine to be published in these lands was Diyojen. It was published by Teodor Kasap. It was banned on the orders of the palace, closed in 1873. Teodor did not give up. When Diyojen were closed he began again with Çıngıraklı and when that was closed, again with Hayal. These cowards, they shut down Teodor! They arrested him and threw him in jail.

Our first cartoonist, Teodor had drawn Karagöz and Hacivat in his caricature, and it was this that ultimately caused him to go to prison. He drew Karagöz’s in leg shackles. “What is this?”, Karagöz asks. “Freedom under the law” replies Hacivat. For this crime the sentence was three years.

The Young Turks then took up the banner of humor. They published magazines like Dolap, Beberuhi, Pinti, Tokmak. But not here, they worked from Geneva or London, forced into exile. They weren’t even allowed to step into the country. During the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II the creation of a cartoon was a great crime. The editor in the first issue of Tokmak explained this painful situation as follows: ”It is in vain to expect humour from our magazine, but instead hüngür hüngür gülmek best expresses it; we laugh rather than cry our eyes out.”

The humor of the Republican era began with the Markopaşa magazine, under Aziz Nesin, Sabahattin Ali, Rıfat Ilgaz and Mim Uykusuz. Again a criminal case was filed and the magazine was closed. For this reason, they continued publishing as and when they could under a banner heading “the times when the authors are not in prison”. Their distribution to vendors was banned so copies were handing out on the streets but even under those circumstances a truly unbelievable circulation of seventy thousand copies was achieved. A series of new titles were adopted for essentially the same magazine: Markopaşa, Merhumpaşa, Malumpaşa. Eventually Sabahattin Ali was assassinated. A fire bomb nearly killed Aziz Nesin. Rıfat Ilgaz was arrested but escaped. Mim Uykusuz was arrested on numerous occasions and his work banned, meaning his caricatures generally were signed with aliases.

During the rise of the Demokrat Parti it was decreed that satirical cartoons “damaged the multi-party democratic order”. Lawsuits were pursued for this ridiculous reason and cartoonists were imprisoned for “damaging democracy”. Concerning humor magazines, the decision was often made to confiscate before release, rendering cartoon material contraband! Turhan Selçuk was the most tried during this time. His well-known Abdülcanbaz character was born when the Demokrat Parti collapsed and Turkish society’s nightmares truly began.

Kenan Evren would go on to shut down the Association of Cartoonists and demolish the Museum of Humor.

The world-renowned Gırgır magazine was the next target. In 2006 a molotov cocktail was thrown at the statue of Oguz Aral’s famous character Avanak Avni. It was repaired but in 2007 its fixtures were damaged and in the same year set on fire. It was again repaired and again attacked in 2008, smashed with a sledgehammer. It was erected in front of Kadıköy Cartoon House, ripped up and stolen from its pedestal. This is the reward for fame.

And then the great leader of the 21st century, President Erdoğan. He sued over being drawn as a cartoon kitten by Musa Kart. He sued over being drawn as a giraffe, elephant, monkey, camel, frog, snake, cow and duck on the cover of Penguen magazine too. And he filed a lawsuit against the caricature as a blood-sucking tick on the cover of LeMan. But Kart, who drew his last cartoon on Christmas Day 2017, became a singular obsession. Musa Kart escaped prosecution in normal times but the attempted coup of 2016 and subsequent state of emergency helped the president enormously.

Nine months of detention, then out, but not over. The government regrouped, sleeping on it for a year. And as of yesterday the iron bars were put in place again. But on the contrary…

Take a look at this caricature of Kart’s drawn in the early 2000s. When Fetullah Gulen leaked to the Turkish Armed Forces the authorities were obsequious but Musa was unconvinced. Time and again his cartoons were a warning. If we collect all his anti-FETO caricatures we’d have a book. Yet now, shamelessly, he is put in prison for the second time and all as a fetish to please an obsessive.

The celebrated cartoonist, convicted of “supporting terrorism”, recognised for his bravery by CRNI and Cartooning For Peace and currently the subject of an exhibit at the Maison de Dessin du Presse, Morges, has surrendered to authorities at Kandıra Prison.

CRNI is saddened to report that our cherished friend and colleague, past winner of our Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award Musa Kart is once again a prisoner in Turkey this evening.

As recently as the beginning of this week Musa and his colleagues were hopeful that the Turkish police and prosecution service could be convinced to wait until the appeals on behalf of all the various co-accused staff from Cumhuriyet newspaper were heard (see their press conference below).

However, the appeals process for all those with shorter sentences failed in February of this year. Since then Musa’s imprisonment has been an impending possibility. We and many other cartoonists’ organisations have sent the intervening time asking for clemency via diplomatic channels, to no avail. Word came though of an imminent order for arrest and so Musa and his colleagues have elected to surrender at a time and place of their own choosing, a typically dignified gesture. Before entering Kandıra he said:

“I believe people will see the injustice that is being done here. Several brave reporters have recently summarised what’s happening in Turkey: people who punch the leader of a major political party are permitted to go free while those who draw cartoons or report the news are put in prison. We look forward to the day when journalists need not make proclamations such as these in front of prison gates.”

Musa Kart, 04/25/19

As readers of our site will recall Musa previously spent nine months in illegal pre-trial detention on charges pertaining to the support of terrorism in 2016/17. He will now go back behind bars for another year and sixteen days, having been found guilty of one of the charges levelled against him in 2018. He has since retired from cartooning , preferring to spend time with family.

We categorically condemn the unjust criminal prosecution of Musa Kart. This is the climax of a fifteen year campaign of intimidation and persecution on the part of President Recep Erdoğan who has long harboured enmity toward Musa and indeed all critical voices in the Turkish press and media. Reporter Sans Frontières’ latest index places Turkey 157th out of 180 nations and says it remains the biggest jailer of journalists in the world.

We urge all concerned with press and media freedom to join in demands for the immediate release and total exoneration of Musa Kart and all his colleagues.

“Yes, I am going back to prison. Look after yourselves…”, he wrote in the Tweet above.

As long-time readers of CRNI’s output will recall, Musa Kart is the 2005 recipient of our annual Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award and the 2018 laureate of The International Press Drawing Prize of the City of Geneva & Cartooning for Peace Foundation. His trial and that of a dozen staff from the Cumhuriyet newspaper came as part of the widespread and much-publicised crackdown on press & media in Turkey in the period after the attempted coup of 2016.

Musa’s opening statement at trial was a blistering and funny critique of Recep Erdoğan’s regime and the absurd notion that opposition politics is tantamount to support of terrorism. His eventual charges were a case of “third time’s the charm” for the thin-skinned president who had already put the cartoonist in the dock over satirical cartoons in 2005 and 2014.

CRNI and many other freedom of expression organisations chose to maintain silence as long as Musa’s appeal was in train for fear of outside interventions jeopardising his chances of success. With the termination of hearings and no alternatives left to pursue expect calls for his release and acquittal to be given full voice once again. Assuming his sentence is served in full he will be inside for three years and nine months. It is worth remembering his wholly illegal and unjustified pre-trial detention amounted to nine months from November 2016 through July 2017.

UPDATE: we understand the period of incarceration required by the court is one year and sixteen days.

The recent global assessment by Freedom House gives Turkey just 31 out of 100 on its scale of assessment and the deterioration there is cited as part of an identifiable and worsening trend of democratic retreat around the world. For a sense of the industrial scale upon which the Turkish authorities continue to persecute and prosecute critical voices within the press, arts and academia one need only glance at Expression Interrupted’s exhaustive calendar of court proceedings.

CRNI condemns this ruling in the strongest possible terms and once again calls upon the international community to apply diplomatic pressure on Turkey where and whenever possible and for as long as its grand project of suppression and intimidation continues.